I am a STALKER

...a mailbox stalker, that is! My RSVP's have been steadily rolling in for the last week, but there are still SO MANY to come. I am home for most of the summer, and I honestly check my mailbox 10 times in the morning before it is actually full. There must be something wrong with me because I am actually sad and disappointed when there are no little pink RSVP envelopes in there! The worst thing to find in my mail these days is a returned invitation. Like the one I got back because my darling cousin gave me the wrong address. Bummer. So far, there have been three returns, and hopefully that will be it.
Don't you love it when people write little notes on their RSVP cards? That's the BEST kind of mail!

Look What Came Today!

I always find inspiration on Weddingbee, and sometimes I find really good deals! Bee Miss Joey recently posted about steals and deals. Thanks to her, I found a perfect pink clutch to match my perfect pink shoes! And, what a deal! I ordered it from Aldo, and paid less that $15.00! Love it!

Charm-ing bouquet

So, I blogged about my inspiration bouquet recently. And, I love it, I really do. But I don't love those dangly pink crystal chandelier thingys hanging from it. But I did want SOMETHING dangling from my bouquet. I turned to etsy, of course, to find the perfect bouquet charm. This is what will make my bouquet charming! It's from etsy seller magpiedesignz. I love it, and I can't wait to see it on my wedding day.

Flowers

I decided a while ago that I would DIY the flowers for my wedding. Since I made that decision, I have been second guessing myself! I did a few practice bouquets, centerpieces, and bouts, and they actually weren't half bad! I don't really doubt the fact that I have the ability to DIY my flowers, I just wonder about the toll it's going to take on my sanity the week of the wedding. This picture (I've had it saved to my flickr site forever, so if it's yours, please let me know so that I can give you props) is the inspiration for my bouquet. It's why I ordered a jillion ranunculus. I only hope mine comes out this good!
I am doing bunches of clumped up carnations for my centerpieces (don't I make them sound so nice?!?) I used to HATE carns, but I actually like the way they look when all bunched up together. Cheap and easy. Nice.
I ordered all my flowers from www.fiftyflowers.com, and I promise to review them after the big event. Wish me luck. I have a feeling I'm going to need it!

Cocktail Napkins

Another project I did months before the wedding was gocco my cocktail napkins. I liked the idea to personalize the napkins with little facts about yourself and your fiance, but wanted to do something a little different. You may remember that I described our wedding as a big huge PAR-TAY, with the main theme being F.U.N. To go along with that, we decided to gocco lots of different funny quotes about love on our cocktail napkins. We are having a cocktail reception, so I figured we'd need lots of cocktail napkins.

Here are some of the quotes we used:

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. -Rita Rudner

Your love is better than ice cream. -Sara MacLauchlan

I have seen him in hawaiian shirts, she said, so there is nothing hidden between us. -Brian Andreas

Anyone can be passionate but it takes real lovers to be silly. -Rose Franken

I was naseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox. -Woody Allen

I love you even when you're sick and look disgusting. - From the movie Love Actually

Falling in love is so hard on the knees. -Aerosmith

I'm not a smart man but I know what love is. -Forrest Gump

Men are from earth, women are from earth. deal with it. -George Carlin

People will say we're in love. -Hannibal Lechter

This was a fun project, my fiance and I had lots of laughs when searching for quotes. I think they will make for some good conversation starters. :)

She Wore a Flower in her Hair

hair flower
Originally uploaded by colleenshelly

Ok, so in my last post I mentioned my hair flower, and promised "more on that later," so I'm keeping my word... here it is! I ordered this gorgeousness from Etsy seller Mikiye. It is a beautiful creamy pink color, and when I went for my hair trial, everyone thought it was real! Now to decide if I want to wear a birdcage veil or not.....

First the Shoes... and now the Dress

Here she is. This is it, only in white, err... actually "marshmallow." Not the greatest picture, but it is the only picture I can find on line. It's made by Dessy, and is actually a bridesmaid dress. I knew I wanted to be a "short-dress bride," and quickly realized that bridesmaid dresses were the way to go... such a savings! I am going to add a little extra pouf to the skirt by wearing a crinoline. I'm still looking for jewelry, I really like the look of the big necklace in the picture, but think it may be too much with the big hair flower I'm wearing. More on that later... :)

Must.Have.These.Shoes.

I have been lusting after these for a while! (source: Zappos.com; they are Kate Spade Clarice). I showed them to my darling FI last night, and he didn't even flinch at the $300.00 price tag! He told me to ORDER THEM! I love that man. But, I am having a hard time justifying spending that much money on something I will probably wear once.

And then FATE intervened. I was perusing the Weddingbee classifieds this morning, and someone is selling them for $175. Now THAT, I can justify! Say a little prayer for me that they fit me! I am in love.

Wreath Tutorial

This is a picture of one of the wreaths I will be hanging on the church doors for the wedding. After the ceremony, we'll be moving this to the doors of the reception venue (gotta love decor that does double duty!). This isn't the greatest photo, but the initials will be centered in the middle of the wreath before the big day.... I guess I should get on that!
Here's how I made them.

Supplies:
1. Rectangular sheet of styrofoam. I got mine at JoAnn Fabric.
2. Hot glue gun
3. Silk flowers, and lots of 'em! My colors are pink and green, so I used silk hydrangeas in shades of these colors. As you can see from the photo, I used mostly pink with green as an accent color.
4. Initials of the bride and groom. I found these at Michael's. They are made out of a smooth, sturdy styrofoam.
5. Paint for initials
6. Ribbon
This was one of the first projects I did for our wedding. They can be made WAY ahead of time, which is great!
Steps:
1. Cut styrofoam into desired shape and size. Mine are about 10 inches square. The craft stores sell a fancy expensive styrofoam cutter; don't waste your money on it! I just used a knife to cut my styrofoam. It leaves the edges kind of rough, but it doesn't matter since they will be nicely covered with flowers.
2. Pull the flowers off of the stems with the plastic center of the flower still attached. I tried to get a picture of this, but all I got was a blurry blob. It's a good idea to have that plastic center attached; you'll see why in the next step.
3. Add a dab of hot glue to the back of your flower, on the plastic part. Stick the plastic into the styrofoam. Repeat this step a zillion times until your wreath is covered. I recommend placing the flowers close together so none of the white styrofoam shows through. Make sure to cover the sides of the wreath. Also, if you are going to be using your wreath on a window or glass door, do the back, too. Don't worry about the stringy hot glue stuff; it is easily removed when you are done.
4. Once the wreath is covered, attach ribbon to the back. I used hot glue for this because the back of my wreath won't show. If you are covering the back of your wreath with flowers, attach the ribbon first.
5. Paint your letters in a color to compliment the wreath. I wouldn't use the same color as your flowers, because you want it to stand out a bit.
6. If you want your initial centered in each of the wreaths, use fishing line hot glued to the back of the wreath. (this is the step I haven't done yet, despite the fact that I've had these wreaths completed since January!)
Feel free to email me with any questions.... cshel829@gmail.com. Have fun!

My Next Project (after the wedding!)

I think I found a new use for all those original old newspapers from the 1950's/60's stashed in the attic of my garage...Paper Mache bowls! Maybe they will be Christmas gifts next year...shhh, don't tell. I found this on the Painted Fish Studio Blog. Check it out here. www.paintedfishstudio.com/?p=257

What do you think?

Treats for Dancin' Feet

Our reception is going to be a BIG HUGE PAR-TAY! Our band is playing for four hours, and we aren't doing any of the traditional formalities. It's the second wedding for both me and my FI, so we just want to have fun and celebrate with the people we love. So, no cake-cutting (actually, no cake!), no special dances, and no garter/bouquet toss mean that we will have four straight hours of DANCING! We MUST, therefore, provide flip-flops for our female guests! I have eighty pairs of pink and green flipflops ready to go! I found the nifty baskets at Target and added the sign post, sign and ribbon. For the flipflops, I made stickers to show the size and attached them with coordinated polka dot ribbon. I know our ladies are going to appreciate them!

Just Married

Here's a picture of the banner we will be using for our "getaway car." The car, by the way, is my 1978 Volkswagen Superbeetle Convertible. Yay! Unfortunately, my sweet lil car is in the garage, so I couldn't take a pic of her wearing the banner. :( So for now, it's just tacked to my corkboard, but you get the idea... right?

I used my cricut for the cutouts. I like how the scalloped circles incorporate the polka dot theme. And, of course, I had to use my pink and green!

I will make a banner just for you if you'd like.... see my etsy shop for more details! :)

Getting My Invitations Ready to GO!

This is what I'm working on tonight. I made my invitations with my gocco, and incorporated our pink and green polka dot theme. This little project kept me very busy during several cold, dark upstate NY winter weekends! I have had them packed away for a while, but got them out this afternoon to get them ready to go in the mail. For a gocco novice (never even heard of the thing until I started planning my wedding!), I don't think they came out too bad. What do you think? I mean, besides the horrible "erase" job of personal info I did in photoshop elements! :)

Etsy Shop is OPEN!

I did it! I have a few items listed in my etsy shop. Check it out! It's www.colshelly.etsy.com.
I am a TOTAL NEWBIE to this kind of thing, so I am open to feedback/comments/constructive criticism.... let me know what you think!

Gifties for my Girlies

It all started with this bag from etsy seller tinygreenapples. I had the bags personalized for each girl and of course, they feature pink and green polka dots! Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea! They have black handles at the top of the bag, not visible in this pic.

I went on to fill each bag with all kinds of personalized goodies, like this little box that I found at the dollar store. It's a box/picture frame, but instead of putting a picture in the frame, I made a monogram for each girl, printed it on cardstock, and added that! Inside the box, I put book plate stickers I made for each girl. I think I need a new camera, because they look A TON better in real life!!

I also put in a dollar store photoalbum that I personalized for each girl, and a disposable camera. To personalize the photoalbum, I adhered ribbon to it and made cardstock circle stickers and used the same monogram I used for the bookplate box. I think they came out cute!

Another etsy find was from seller ItsAllAboutYou. I ordered scrabble tile necklace charms with each girl's initials, and then created the ribbon necklace myself.

Each girl is also getting flip-flops, personalized notepads, and a picture frame. What do you think? I can't wait to gift my girls!

My Attendants

The only attendants I will have at my wedding are under the age of 10. That's right... four little girls will be my flowergirls/bridesmaids! The wedding of Mariska Hargitay (my fiance's object of lust from Law and Order!) was my inspiration. Check out this photo of her wedding from Instyle
magazine. Don't you love it???

How cute is that? These were her only attendants, and after I saw that, I was in love with the idea. I asked my four favorite girls to be in my wedding. One is my niece, two are my FI's nieces, and one is my little cousin. All adorable. All precious. I must get a picture of me with my four special ladies on my wedding day. Hoping it will be something like this...(I have had this photo saved forever on my flickr account, and have no idea where I found it. If it's yours, let me know so that I can give you credit for its awesome-ness!)

Check back tomorrow for pics of the gifties for my girlies! :)

Retro Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

Here are my retro-vintage inspired DIY Rehearsal Dinner invitations! Very old-school, huh? I lined the envelopes with actual newspaper (original--not copies!) from the early 60's. When I bought my house, I discovered that the previous owner (a sweet old lady) had stashed TONS of rolled-up newspapers from that era in the attic of the garage. Perfect for so many crafty endeavors!! Anyway, there is SO much of it, I was able to search for the perfect images for the liners. In the picture, it's an ad for a bridal gown on sale at Wards. Perfect for this project, right? I lined the envelopes according to each recipient; my dad is a Mets fan, so he is getting a clipping from the sports page about the Mets (it's about players I've never heard of, but I'm sure he has!). Another relative is kind of a mafia-buff, so the clipping I used for their invite features Jimmy Hoffa! I refuse to seal the envelopes the traditional way because I don't want the envelopes to rip when they are opened, so I made seals for them.
What do you think? Any other ideas for using all this cool old newspaper? :)

THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING!

Never, did I ever, think I'd be a blogger! I never paid much attention to blogs until I started planning my wedding.... and now I'm hooked! I have lots of DIY to share with you, which I will do soon.... i promise! For our wedding, I am doing a pink and green preppy polka dot theme. LOVE IT! Here's a teaser pic of my DIY cardbox. Let me know what you think!